


a bit behind the times

by scottsalem



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Bi-Curiosity, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Fluff, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Trans Male Character, Trans Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:33:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26334163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scottsalem/pseuds/scottsalem
Summary: Peter officially meets Steve for the first time at Stark tower and is just the right teacher to help him figure a few things out.Bucky shows up at just the most convenient moment.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 8
Kudos: 183





	a bit behind the times

I wipe my face with my hand, and lean back to admire my new webshooter design. The midday sun through the window mixed with the soft blue illumination of Mr. Stark’s holograms catches nicely on the sleek red and blue metal. My new electrocuting web should carry just enough voltage to knock someone out, but not enough to do any serious damage. If used properly. Electricity is a tricky thing to work with, especially with no test subjects.

I stretch my back, getting a few hearty pops out of it. It’s a binder break day, so of course I’m slouching more than usual and my back isn’t loving it. 

“Note to self,” I mumble, “see if Mr. Stark’s insurance policy covers chiropractors too.”

“It does.” A hearty voice comes from behind me, and I nearly fall out of my swivel chair. 

“Oops, sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s fine, really.” I get up, and see... “ _Jesus Christ!_ ”

Captain America is leaning on the doorframe, the cup of coffee in his hand seeming almost comically small compared to his huge build.

He smiles. “Usually, I prefer to go by Steve.”

Now he’s holding out one of those huge hands for a handshake. I’m shaking Captain America’s hand.

“This is insane, I- I’m honored, sir, I- god, I don’t know what to say!”

He chuckles... bashfully? It’s as if he’s never been fanboyed over before.

“The honor is all mine, believe me. I’ve heard Tony talk about you and your work all the time, he’s really proud of you, kid.”

“Aw, well that’s great to hear, sir.” My voice cracks. _Hard_. I stop shaking his hand now.

His eyes widen for a second but then he laughs and comes into the room, grabbing a chair for himself.

“That reminds me, I’ve been meaning to ask- how old are you, anyway? I remember thinking you sounded way too young to be in the hero game when I first saw you in the suit.”

“Well, I’m- I’m gonna be 19 next month.”

He puts down his coffee.

“ _19?_ ”

I fiddle with my hoodie strings.

“Yup.”

He gets that squint people get when they’re trying to make my age and my appearance make sense. I hate that squint. Especially on binder off days.

Then that squint changes to something I can’t quite figure out.

“Okay, I’m really sorry if this is a... weird ask, but I’m constantly realizing that I still have a lot to learn about the 21st century and I...” he pauses for a minute, studying his hands. “I mean, as a young person, I think you’d be a great person to... catch me up, so to speak.”

I smile, and sit down across from him.

“Alright, sure. What do you wanna know?”

He fumbles a bit, and then pulls a little notepad and pencil out of his pocket. Turns out he’s been keeping a running cheat sheet of all the 21st century’s references and lingo as it’s come up over the last few years he’s been here.

I explain memes to him, I even show him a few vine compilations, and I help him sign up for Twitter and Instagram. I add Shrek and The Bee Movie to his to watch list, as well as at least a few episodes of The Office and Brooklyn 99. I try not to go into too much detail about fanfiction, because it very quickly becomes apparent that the idea of people writing erotic stories about him and Tony is... upsetting to him.

But that leads us into the topic I think he really wanted to talk to me about- the gay stuff.

“So, people are... okay with that now?” He asks.

“Well, most people, yeah. There’s still a lot of a-holes out there, but mostly people are chill.”

He sits back, tapping his notebook with his eraser.

“It’s not just gay people either,” I continue, “there’s all kinds of people- like, transgender people, nonbinary people, bisexuals, asexuals...”

He looks really confused, so I decide to take a step back.

“So, think of a, uh... like a swing, right? And the swing is who you’re attracted to. So, straight people only swing forward. Gay people only swing backwards. Bisexual people swing backwards and forwards. Pansexual people swing all over the place wherever they want. And asexual people are over there in the sandbox wondering why people like the swings so much.”

He smiles, staring into space.

“Y’know, that actually makes a lot of sense.”

I chuckle.

“Right? I read that on tumblr I think... that’s another social media thing, uh, we don’t need to get into that... but then there’s a similar thing with gender.”

He flips the page in his notepad and smiles at me lopsidedly.

“You got another playground for that?”

“Sadly no. That’s my only one. I do have a ghost analogy for you though!”

He hums into his coffee.

“You’re really good at this, you know that?”

“Well, after coming out to like, seven different parental figures, you kinda get the hang of it.”

He raises his eyebrows, in a face I can only describe as “ _huh. Interesting_.”

“So, picture everyone as being like, a ghost piloting a body suit.”

“Like the Iron Man suit?”

“Yes, exactly. So, you have like, guy suits, girl suits, and in between suits, right? And then, same thing for the pilots. You have guy pilots, girl pilots, in between pilots, and like... like nothing pilots, right? Like ones that are just pilots, with no category.”

I take a second to make sure he’s getting it, and he nods.

“So, sometimes the suit and the pilot matches. Like, guy suit, guy pilot, girl suit, girl pilot, et cetera. But other times they don’t quite match. So, people deal with that in different ways. Some people just dress how they feel, some people just explain it to people, and then some people...”

“Fix the suit.”

“ _Exactly_. And there’s different ways of doing that. Some people get surgery, some people take medication, some people just- uh, well some people just wear... concealing clothes, to... flatten out whatever needs to be flattened, or- or pad what needs to be padded.”

I half smile, half grimace, but all things considered, he seems to be taking my description very well.

“Personally, I have injections, and usually I bind my chest, but it’s good to have a rest day every once in a while. Let the skin breathe, y’know?”

“Yeah.” He chuckles a bit. “You kinda have your own super soldier serum then, huh?”

My jaw drops.

“Oh my god, I’ve never thought of it like that!”

He laughs, a good hearty laugh that fills the room. I join in, and after a while we fall into a comfortable silence as we both catch our breath. 

“Hey, uh... can we go back to the playground for a second?

I look up at him.

“Yeah, sure!”

“If you don’t mind my asking, uh... where are you? Just, out of curiosity.”

“Oh, well, I _am_ Spider-Man, so swinging all over the place is kinda my thing.”

He chuckles again.

“Right, of course. Uh, how... how did you... get there?”

I lean back in my chair.

“Well, I’ve always thought guys were hot, but around middle school I started realizing girls were hot too. It took me a while to shop around for the right label for that, but once I found it, it was like learning my name for the first time.”

He nods, staring off into space behind me.

Then I pull out my phone again and show him a few of the different flags, and I even manage to scrounge up a few markers and highlighters for him to sketch them into his notepad. The sun is starting to set by the time he finally stands up, and holds out a hand to me.

“It has been a pleasure talking to you, Peter Parker. And thank you again, for being so patient with me about all of this.”

I grab his hand and give it a firm shake.

“Of course, Mr. Rogers sir. I’m happy to help.”

He smiles, then gets distracted by something off to the side. I turn to look where he’s looking, and I see, through the internal window of the lab, a man with long brown hair and a metal arm talking with Mr. Stark. I look back at Mr. Rogers, and his eyes are now sparkling in a way I can’t possibly mistake. I pat him on the back, and he turns back to me.

I grin the cheesiest grin I can manage. He furrows his brow.

“What, what’s that look supposed to mean?”

I smile wider.

“Nothin’. Just, uh... have fun on the swings there, Captain.”

He chuckles, shaking his head.

“Alright, whatever kid.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y’all, this was a really cute little one shot I wrote like two years ago and decided to revamp and post. As usual, constructive criticism is always appreciated and I hope you liked it!  
> ~S. Salem


End file.
